The term was first coined by thermal connoisseur Grant Whittle while on the bench at Sauna Days 2023, Two Harbors, Minnesota, USA. The term was picked up in national media via a recent New York Times article about saunas also along the shores of Lake Superior. So, let’s ask: how is your sauna’s spirtual patina?
Most of us know it when we see it, and also when we feel it. It hits us right away. Yet explaining spiritual patina can take a little unpacking. The French refer to its cousin as je ne sais quois, which translates to “a quality that cannot be described or named easily.”
And for us Westerners, Germans may want to measure it, Canadians may want to thank it, Finns may want to regard it, and Americans may want to sell it. The Japanese? Well, they refer to wabi sabi as (“appreciating beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” in nature”) .
Bob Marley most likely didn’t spend much time on the sauna bench, but he rightfully proclaimed: “who feels it, knows it.”
Spiritual patina is earned over time
New saunas do not have much spiritual patina, unless, for example, Kelo wood were brought in and paid homage to with each log’s chinking.
Modern big glass thermal treated chic saunas can be proudly displayed today on Instagram, yet in the long term, they may struggle to gain spiritual patina as much as their ability to maintain clean glass.
Over time, as our saunas get used like a baseball glove, they will develop a gently warm – and worn – look and feel.
And, as we know, every sauna has its own soul. Some of the best saunas are ones where, as we settle ourselves on the sauna bench, we look around the room with an almost childlike inquisitiveness as to why we are feeling… almost privileged to be there. Chances are, these saunas have been around a long time. These saunas have picked up the good vibrations of many, many satisfying sauna sessions.
Naturally clean
Saunas with spiritual patina smell natural. They are well ventilated. Because they breathe well, the heat righteous and full. These saunas are naturally hygienic thanks to good heat, baked and breathed.
For some, the fight against sweat stains and uncleanliness is a lifelong battle, akin to ridding a Northern Minnesota cabin from spiders. Yet owners of spiritual patina saunas have each found a place of peace with their saunas as they are and as they have become. Most of these saunas have never seen any cleaning detergents. These type of saunas may be scrubbed with warm soap and water once or twice a year. Usually spring and fall, and our saunas react favorably to this gentle scrub.
Spiritual patina saunas don’t like detergents or cleaning agents.
These saunas don’t mind if a sauna bather sits bare ass on its benches.
Like a seasoned famous actor accepting of their age, saunas with a lot of patina have accepted the passing of time well.
Saunas with a lot of spiritual patina feel great.
These saunas are like enjoying eggs from a cast iron frying pan, handed down from generation to generation. Eggs taste better when fried up in a generational old cast iron frying pan. Saunas feel better in a generational old sauna. In either case, we don’t ask why. We just know that when you feel its good heat, it’s all over.
Saunas with spiritual patina are not perfect. But these saunas are perfectly imperfect.
Make do
Spiritual patina saunas often use commonplace items to get the job done. Some find clever ways to make use of what is on hand or easily accessible, vs. purchased. A dishpan or pickle bucket for löyly water. A nail for a towel hook, a rock or sandal for a door stop (after the bake and breathe method).
A couple of Finnish terms
The term makes sense now, and does quite capture the Rajaportti vibes 🙂
I wouldn’t have thought of translating “rempallaan” as “almost there”. It’s more like “laissez-faire”… things are just let to be. “Sopivasti” is not too little and not too much. The Swedish “lagom” is very similar.
“Sopivasti rempallaan”, I think, describes a situation like if you’ve built a garden and over the time it becomes overgrown and the fence starts to lean. A slightly leaning fence can be more charming and tell more of a lived life than a perfectly straight fence – but if it leans too much, it’s going to fall over which is too much decay.
– Mika Meskanen, sauna aficionado and architectural archipelagoist.
Ways to help introduce spiritual patina within your own sauna:
- Let your benches go au naturale. No waxes or oils.
- Encourage sweat stains or bumps and blemishes to be.
- Collect different rocks from vacations and trips for adding to your sauna stove.
- Hang a photograph or two of spiritually special places in your life in your cool down room.
- Provide a sauna guest journal.
- Find an interesting tree branch and adapt it to be your hot room door handle.
Do you have any other ideas or examples of how your sauna has spiritual patina?
3 thoughts on “How is your sauna’s spiritual patina?”
It was my dad’s dream to build a sauna. Sadly he passed away before that could happen so we built ours in honor of him. In it, we used his stove, and have created a small relic shelf dedicated to him. We also have a framed sketch of his sauna design. I love how using our sauna makes me feel closer to him.
I’m building my first sauna in my back yard in North Carolina. I’m not a builder and I’m on a budget so I expect it will have lots of character.
I love the spiritual patina concept and as I read this post, I saw in the corner of my living room a diamond willow walking stick gifted to me by a customer when I was bartending at the Lakeview Castle on the North Shore of Lake Superior. I just decided it’s going to make a great door handle with a story behind it.
I like the idea that the sauna is not a showplace for the latest design fad. It was meant to be a utilitarian space with a function so the form does follow the function. It should be a mystical place, some glass is fine, let a bit of nature in, but, not so much that you feel like you are in a fishbowl. The sauna experience should help to focus the mind inward, that is why loud conversation is not a part of the sauna, quiet time, only the crackle of flame and hiss of steam should interrupt our thoughts. If alone we meditate, on the events or the day as the heat heals the body and our meditation calms the mind. I have things in the sauna that personalize it, an old wooden dynamite box for wood, with Dupont and High Explosive painted on it. a beautiful small rack of antler to remind me of the wild things, a beautiful Finnish sauna ladle is ready to use, and, an a handmade wooden soap tray to hold the Finnish sauna soap. I like some bright color to contrast with the cedar panelling, so, my floor is bright red, and I have a dark blue bath mat for he floor and smaller ones for the benches. In time the cedar will darken and mellow, that is like our lives, we start out brash, fresh and bright, and, as we age, the wrinkles come, the skin once so bright and fresh show the effects of age and weather, even the scars of some accident with a sharp object. I want a sauna that feels like it has been lived in, comfortable as an old easy chair, some place that will tell a person a story about who made it and loved it.